Chicken Pox & Some NST Concerns

Chicken Pox

Last Wednesday, Andrea woke up with Chicken Pox! It was unmistakable. I had noticed what I thought were a couple of bug bites on her leg the night before. When she woke up the next morning, they were everywhere: face, neck, scalp, arms, legs, torso, and even between her legs (ouch!). Andrea thought it was very exciting; she wanted to show everyone her "Chicken Pops"!
Of course, she couldn't; she had to stay home from school. Thankfully, Gram and Papa had just returned from a vacation in Cuba the night before, so they were able to watch her for the rest of the week. She did pretty well; she only spiked a fever once or twice, and was really good about not scratching too much. She went back to school yesterday, and what she said made me laugh: "At school, I felt free; when I was at home, I was trapped."

I have no idea where she got them from. No one else we know has had them recently; even school and daycare said they haven't had any cases in her or Kevin's classrooms. I have since heard that a friend's brother's daughter, who also goes to Lassaline, has contracted them (not from us), but she even had the vaccination! My kids haven't gotten the vaccination (long story), and I really regret it now, for a bunch of reasons.

I called my doctor to see if I could get Kevin in to get him vaccinated ASAP, because I read that even after exposure the vaccine can still lessen or even stop the onset of Chicken Pox. However, the soonest she can get him in is NEXT Tuesday.

I also keep reading about how dangerous Chicken Pox is for newborns, and if Kevin takes another week or two to get it, he'll be infectious just in time for Ryan's arrival. The timing couldn't be worse!

NST Concerns

NST stands for Nonstress Test. This test is commonly done for babies with diabetic mothers. I had them weekly in my 3rd trimester for both Andrea and Kevin. For Ryan, things have been going so well that I only had one at 30 weeks, and now one at 34 weeks. Basically, what should happen is that when the baby moves, his heart rate should increase by about 15 beats per minute, for about 15 seconds, then return back to normal. This should happen at least twice in a 20 minute period.

Ryan, however, has started to worry everyone by doing his own thing. Ryan sleeps/doesn't move for about 20 minutes, and has a nice, steady heart rate. Then, he wakes up and moves like crazy for about 10 minutes. During those ten minutes, his heart rate is all over the place. It jumps as high as the 180s and dips as low as the 100s. Then, he goes back to sleep.

The doctors and nurses don't like how he's not conforming to the typical pattern. I had an ultrasound on Thursday (which was normal) and the NST, which was abnormal. After I saw my OB on Friday, she sent me to the hospital for another NST. Ryan was sleepy, but his heart rate was steady. So, they booked me to go back yesterday (Monday) for another NST. This time, he followed the crazy pattern like on Thursday's--but even more so. They decided to send me down for an ultrasound/biophysical profile to check on him. He scored a perfect 8/8, so they sent me home. He looked fine. Basically, they have just told me to go to the hospital "if anything changes." Nice and vague, eh?

Here's a picture from the 34-week ultrasound of my little troublemaker. It's a typical side profile, but you can see he's going to have chubby cheeks, like Kevin had. By the way, he is already measuring at about 6.5 pounds!